"Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its 5-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before."
Captain James T. Kirk introduced viewers to his crew and ship with these famous words during the opening sequence of "Star Trek," but he could have also been talking about wunderkind Elon Musk and his shiny new car. Last week, the Tesla CEO/Space X visionary/mad genius kicked off pre-orders for the the auto manufacturer's futuristic electric sedan, the Model 3, showing the world that there is indeed a market for electric vehicles.
Spaceship specs
With its intelligent features, impressive electric technology and sleek design, Tesla believes the Model 3 will be the starship that brings transportation into the future, via hyperspeed, of course.
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According to Tesla's plans for the vehicle, the Model 3 has some truly futuristic specs that really will take drivers to places where no owners of electric vehicles have gone before – like across the state. Gone are the days when consumers feared being stranded by an electric battery that ran out too quickly: With just one charge, the Model 3 can be driven an incredible 215 miles. And as Computerworld noted, it's also faster than a Mercedes: The Model 3 can go 0-60 mph in less than six seconds, while the Mercedes C-class clocks 0-60 mph in a comparatively laggard 6.3 seconds.
The Model 3 also features impressive technology. It boasts an automatic lane-changing feature and a sleek dashboard that dropped an instrument panel for a touchscreen. However, the coolest feature of the Model 3 is that you can summon it to you … without a driver in the car. Using an app, you can turn on the car, open your garage door and have the car back out, all on its own. CNN Money has a neat video demonstrating the feature here.
Lift off for EV
Musk revealed the Model 3 to the public March 31, and within just two days, 276,000 people pre-ordered the vehicle, far surpassing estimates, according to the Washington Post. For comparison, many of the best-selling cars in the U.S. only reach 300,000 in sales per year. Musk will likely exceed this number in less than a week.
"We've never seen anything quite like this in the auto industry," said Edmunds.com senior analyst Jessica Caldwell in an interview with the source. "It is unprecedented."
People camped out at Tesla dealerships across the country, eagerly putting down an initial payment of $1,000 for a pre-order. The Model 3 is currently being advertised at $35,000 – not much higher than your average new vehicle – though this is a bare-bones version, noted the Post. Experts predict that it will ultimately sell for an average of $42,000.
The massive pre-order sales are impressive on their own, but they also have a greater significance: They show that there is a big market for electric vehicles that are forward-thinking, stylish and the perfect balance between luxury and affordability. In short: EV can be done, it just has to be done right. Or to put it even shorter: Be like Apple. Many pundits are decreeing the Model 3 the "iPhone of the auto industry."
"The Model 3's huge reservation list should serve as a big wake-up call for the rest of the industry," said Tony Lim, an analyst at Kelley Blue Book, in an interview with the Post. "Tesla just did a lot of heavy lifting to attract attention to the EV segment. Now is the time for competitive manufacturers to begin leveraging this momentum that Tesla created and building awareness to their fully electric vehicles that have comparable performance and appeal."
Houston, do we have a problem?
There is a slight catch to all of this that will hinge upon whether the notoriously ambitious Musk can follow through with his promises for the Model 3: None of the cars has even been built yet, despite the company promising delivery in 2017. In a shareholder letter released last year, Tesla management stated that it was "highly confident of average production and deliveries of 1,600 to 1,800 vehicles per week for Model S and Model X combined during 2016," reported The Motley Fool. Add it all up and this means that in one year, Tesla will manufacture around 86,000 vehicles – far below what they'll need to churn out in 2017 for the Model S.
The critics are ready to pounce – The Daily Beast recently published an article headlined "Tesla's Model 3 Could Destroy Elon Musk's Company" – but as Captain Kirk once said:
"Risk! Risk is our business. That's what this starship is all about."
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